Portland

Usually a few things happen when I visit my family in Portland.

I get cold and complain about the gray, rainy weather. And then I drive everyone crazy talking about how much better the weather is in California.

I eat a ton of great food.

I spend far too much time relaxing on the couch with my sister.

I spend a lot of money (I think I need to remind myself that just because there’s no sales tax, that does NOT mean that everything’s a great deal).

This time, there were some other exciting things that happened.

Instead of our usual sloth-like couch sitting behavior, my sister and I actually ventured out for coffee! We went to Baker & Spice and it was AWESOME. It’s been around a long time but I had never been there. What a tragic mistake!

It’s located in Hillsdale, where I grew up (about 10 minutes Southwest of downtown).

Not only did they make one of the best soy lattes I’ve ever had (PERFECT foam…and I know how hard that is with soy milk), they also had a pretty awesome vegetable sandwich on foccaccia and divine cookies. LOVE.

Other highlights of the visit included:

the best fries of my life at Clyde Common. They were thin, crisp, salty, and came with harissa and creme freche to dip in. Why didn’t I think of that?!

cooking with my sister’s cast iron skillet (ummm, why do I still not own one of these???)

making a happy breakfast (I’m not sure why, at the age of 26, is still have a compulsion to make happy faces with condiments)

and losing to my mom at Scrabble. Twice.

Now we’re off to the in-laws in San Luis Obispo… Merry Christmas Eve Eve!